Called the GENTOUCH78, Augen’s Android tablet may have been lost in a sea of cheap tablets. After all, the name of the device is in all-caps, the company has little track record, and the device is going to be exclusively sold at Kmart at launch.

The good news is how this tablet is different. Unlike Archos’s first wave of Android tablets, it’s priced competitively at $169.99, and it also is shipping with Android 2.1. That’s a first for any Android tablet.

Google has yet to provide formal approval of tablets, refusing to offer the so-called Google Experience (Market, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, etc) on tablets. That hasn’t stopped tablet manufacturers from jumping the gun and shipping these devices. This is a critical time for tablet manufacturers, building name recognition and challenging iPad with a device less than a third of its $499 entry price tag.

Early reports do indicate that Augen has managed to gain some of the Google Experience, with the Android Market appearing on the device. Other apps however are still absent.

Augen boasts good specifications, with an 800 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, and SDHC card slot. Hackers will undoubtedly deliver Google’s full set of apps. The device’s main downsides are a lack of video output and 800×480 pixel display. Augen claims the device can handle 720p video, despite not having a true 720p display.

Here’s the problem. Kmart doesn’t have any yet. The device was featured on their weekly ad, complete with a $149 price tag (a $20 launch discount). Kmart explained on their company blog that Augen’s shipment had been delayed, but that Kmart would honor the price for people who request rainchecks.

So, we went to Kmart to get our raincheck. Others report that some stores have taken stock of Augen’s Android 1.6 netbook, which is a much less sophisticated ODM affair. At $99, it delivers a 400 MHz CPU and is far less interesting. Unlike Augen’s tablet, this device goes beyond the Google performance requirements internally (a 528 MHz CPU being their internal baseline, as shown in the recently-discontinued T-Mobile G1). Also, it smacks of generic-y, we saw about 10 of these at different Chinese booths at CES.

The raincheck process did not go well. It took four employees and two trips to locate the SKU number for the tablet. This, despite the company’s own blog telling customers to go in-store and simply request a raincheck. Others at stores nationwide report to PhoneNews.com similar difficulties.

So, to help you out, here’s the SKU: 811470015254. Take that to the electronics counter and ask for a raincheck.

Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building Console, Inc. - a new kind of Android™ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

Well if your store is like the one that is close to me in St. Louis, MO – they don’t give out rainchecks! So basically, once the rush on these clears and the price is normal again – $169.99 – then they will probably have them in stock. How come Augen picked Kmart to do this distribution? No chances of getting this in a major player like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc… ???? Bascially since the store I asked for a raincheck has a “no raincheck” policy – I won’t get the $149.99 price! 🙁 Bad PR Kmart!

People are reserving the sale price (an 11.8% discount). Some stores are taking people’s numbers, presumably to call them when it gets in.

We’ll continue to report on this, and let people know when they need to get in line and camp outside their Kmarts.

: )

To answer one other question, there does appear to be speakers, but no accelerometer, microphone, or compass. Unfortunately, the USB port cannot be converted to being a host port, so it appears microphone and/or camera (a la iPad Camera Connection Kit) are not possible.

I just got off the phone with a Kmart store in Northern Virginia. The employee in the electronics department told me that he’d gotten “about a thousand” calls about this tablet and the store hadn’t received any of them. He also told me that after receiving many calls about this device, he had done some research and spoke to the district manager. The district manager said that he couldn’t even order these devices, and that they would not be coming to this store, or anywhere in the eastern region. The employee pointed me to the disclaimer near the back of the add about not all items being available in all locations. He seemed genuinely disappointed that he didn’t have the devices in stock, saying that he could’ve sold a ton of them.

I would like to know if this is true, and if it is even worth my time to go to the store to get a rain check. If this is actually true, then the entire eastern US may be out of luck.

I stopped in on Sunday at my local KMART and they were very nice about it. I had a raincheck in 30 seconds and they took my phone number and said that they would call me when it came in. I also had a $5 off onlime KMART coupon that they said that they would honor when the units came in. This device will be used for an experiment with a new Android app. It’s really not that big of a deal. These units will be everywhere for under $150 if they take off and the supply gets built up.

Don’t bother to get this after the company VP had announced a major glitch in the onboard memory and storage memory was not showing the correct free space. Plus to make matters worst it he headphone jack is not the standard 3.5m it’s 2.5m. So what they’re going to do is that you contact Augen and tell them you have their product and thus they’ll send at their expense a 2.5m stereo headphone. I think they should recall these and fix the issues or just go back to the drawing board with it. Now that dead pixel problem on the LCD panel is appearing on some and back-light issues as well. I for one got my rain check on Tuesday evening it was like a mad house at the 30 mile drive one-way Kmart just to get the RC. Well in all here you got a store chain that’s been around prior to Walmart and Target and now this items has brighten the store so much it has made average customer come back to it. Now with the issues of this device people are going to think twice about jumping on the bandwagon again so quickly. Who knows maybe something else will appear at your Local Walmart or Target stores to compete with Kmart disaster tablet?

@foo ….who cares what they are doing. Not your worry. You can read the version info right in the device Android and it’s already been rooted. Custom Roms are on the way. The SDK can be downloaded easily. It’s the newest 2.1 Android w/ 1st update installed. If they are able to get a new kernel in it can be overclocked. They already managed to get in and kill unneeded processes to kick the speed up. The market is not working yet though. But you can download the adk’s and install them on the device. For the “On the Cheap and Experimental” these devices hold a lot of potential for the price.

I like to use its ebook function(alot better than reading in my HTC), skype, msn, webmail, youtube and some little games, also i like the Antroid Market software that could download freeware onine and install easily.

[…] according to many following cheap Android tablets and e-readers. The company was best known for offering an Android tablet via K-Mart stores last year with the full Google Experience before being pulled […]